The present application for United States Patent is a conversion of provisional application for U.S. Patent Serial No. 60/190,853, filed on Mar. 20, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system to navigate through web pages, and more particularly, to a navigation tool that allows a user to easily and efficiently move between different paths of linked pages using panels on a display window.
2. Background of the Invention
Browser technology provides people rapid access to a wide breadth of text, graphic, voice, and video information stored in an information base. But using browsers productively as a tool for acquiring new knowledge presents challenges for users of this technology. Users may access new content from links contained within a page of information that they are reading, each elaborating on concepts contained in this initial page of information. Browser technology, however, often leaves users lost in a sea of knowledge as they attempt to navigate through the large corpus of knowledge available to them.
An information base, consisting of linked pages of information, contains a large number of potential paths, through which a user can navigate. Browsers, however, do not provide users any guidance on how to proceed through this large body of information or on how to easily and efficiently move between different paths through the information base. Consider the problems faced by a user of conventional browser technology. Suppose a page that a user is reading contains five links to other pages of information. The user may begin by selecting one of these links and then further explore links extending from this first link. Each link they select overwrites the content of the previous link in the browser window. Therefore when a user wishes to explore other links from the initial page of information, he must backtrack through already accessed links to the initial page. This process would need to be repeated as they navigate through the multiple paths originating from each of the links in the initial page. This interweaving of forward and backward movement through links is very tedious, time consuming, and often leads users to feeling lost.
These problems are to some degree addressed by interfaces that support multiple concurrent views of related information. Through the use of these multi-view techniques, a link is opened in a different window, pane, or frame rather than overwriting the contents of the current browser context. There are, however, limitations in these techniques as well. One interaction technique is to provide users the means to open linked content in a new window. In principle, users could easily switch to previously selected pages of information without needing to backtrack in order to explore other paths emanating from this page. But the problem with this approach is that no mechanism is provided to explicitly track the paths the user has explored. The set of open windows on the screen provides users the only basis for tracking the paths they have navigated from an initial link. However, the screen very quickly may become cluttered with the large number of windows a user needs to open, and users can easily lose the context of their exploration as they selectively close some of these windows.
Multi-frame interfaces provide an alternative technique to address the navigation problems posed by single view interfaces. In these approaches, a fixed set of areas known as frames are displayed within a single window; thus avoiding the proliferation of temporary windows on a screen. A link may be selected in one frame and opened in a different frame. In this way, users may explore multiple links contained within a single page without having to backtrack to the initial page. However, frames do not facilitate being able to easily explore a sequence of links from the first set of linked pages. For example, suppose a user selects a link from a page displayed in one frame. The linked page is now opened in a different frame. But if the user selects a link from this new page, it will either overwrite its content or open a new window. If the user wishes to explore other paths that originate from the first linked page, they will need to engage in the tedious backtracking process required by single view browsers or manually manage the proliferation of windows resulting from the multi-window technique.
Although multi-view interfaces help alleviate some of the navigation problems raised by single-view browsers, they provide users only limited support for navigating easily through multiple paths of linked information stored in an information base. These problems limit the utility of browsers as a tool for exploring inter-related concepts and information. Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and system that enable users to efficiently and easily navigate through multiple sequences of linked information stored in the an information base.
The present invention provides a system and method that solves the above-described problems in browser technology by enabling users to easily navigate through and switch between different paths within an information base. The system comprises a user interface, a display, and an information base source. A user can easily navigate through multiple paths of linked pages of information stored in the information base by displaying pages of information in multiple panels on a window on the display.
According to the invention, pages of information stored in the information base are displayed in multiple panels (panes or frames) on a window of the display. The information base consists of pages of information; each page of information is comprised of at least one form of information selected from the group of text, graphic, video, audio, and animation. Each page of information may contain one or more links to other pages of information in the information base.
A navigation panel, a preview panel, a history panel and an expert path panel are displayed. A first page of information, having data and links to other pages of information, is displayed in the navigation panel. A user may select a link being displayed in the navigation panel, and the system will display the selected page simultaneously in the preview panel. The user may indicate a replacement operation, which will cause the page in the navigation panel to be replaced with the page in the preview panel. The history panel displays symbols representing the pages that have previously been displayed in the navigation panel.
The system leverages multi-view browser technology to enable users to preview different possible paths emanating from a specific page of information prior to selecting a specific path to explore. Users preview a path by selecting a link in a page displayed in one panel of a window (navigation panel) and displaying the linked page in a different panel (preview panel). If users decide to explore the path that continues through the linked page, they replace the contents of the navigation panel with the linked page. Links originating from this first link can now be previewed in the preview panel and the path extended as users select subsequent links to transfer into the navigation panel. As a user incrementally extends the path that they are exploring, the system updates a history that displays the path that the user has thus far explored. The history is represented as a linear sequence of symbols, which taken together represent the users"" linear progression through a specific sequence of linked pages of information. Users can interact with this history to easily return to a previously selected page of information within the path in order to follow other paths emanating from that page. As a user progresses through an alternative path, the history is updated to reflect the new path that the user is pursuing.
The system can also display prescribed paths that a user may follow through the information base. Each prescribed path, known as an expert path, is represented as a linear sequence of symbols, which taken together represent a prescribed sequence of pages of information that a user should visit. The system allows users to select each page of information in the prescribed order, skip any part of the prescribed path, or deviate from the path to explore alternative paths emanating from a specific page of information.